ENTERTAINMENT, EVENT, & FESTIVAL INDUSTRY GROUP

While our entertainment practice is comprehensive in expertise, our focus is on serving the needs of business owners in the entertainment industry. From promoters to ownership, we are well attuned to client expectations and the unique demands of running a business in the entertainment industry.

Our experienced entertainment, event, and festival team offers counsel and representation in the following areas:

Contract negotiation, drafting, and review

Risk management

Insurance coverage and analysis

Strategic vision for product and event development

Claims management and processing

Litigation and litigation management

Contract management

Licensing and intellectual property

Governmental, municipal, and community relations

Sponsorship

Corporate formation and structure

Investment solicitation and documentation

Mergers and acquisitions

Tax compliance

Entertainment, Events, & Festival News

On Thursday, November 15, 2018, Mr. EPSTEIN served as the panel moderator for the conference panel entitled, "Safety First." The panel invlolved discussions with regards to disaster prevention, minimization, and explaination on how preplanning and on-site crisis management can reduce or eliminate risk and reduce negative exposure of festival clients.

Timothy Liam EPSTEIN and industry experts joined forces at this year’s IEBA Conference in Santa Barbra, CA, extending their professional insight with regards to allocation of risk and transferring risk through insurance.

“The current state of case law relative to insurance coverage on additional insured is if you don’t have privity of contract – that means direct contractual privity with that party – it is likely that additional insured status is void. So as much as possible, what I would advise my clients... ”

A high school sports reporter for the Alabama Media Group, Mr. Ben Thomas, quoted Timothy Liam EPSTEIN in his May 25th, 2018 article regarding St. Paul’s lawsuit against the AHSAA. Since then, U.S. District judge William H. Steele has issued an order denying St. Paul’s request for a federal injunction against the new AHSAA competitive balance ruling. Mr. Thomas followed up with Mr. EPSTEIN for his insight on the ruling in his latest article entitled, “St. Paul’s will play its 2018 football season as scheduled despite judge’s ruling.”

"Timothy Epstein, an attorney for Chicago-based Duggan Bertsch, LLC., called Judge Steele’s ruling “predictable” and said organizations like the AHSAA need to crack down on impermissible recruiting rather than focusing on penalizing success of private school teams."

"Now that there is an increased focus on player safety with concussion protocols in place for various professional leagues and the NCAA as well as some high school associations, you really can't justify putting some of these Goliaths up against smaller private schools," said Epstein, whose law expertise includes multipliers and similar measures in high school sports. "The fact that Alabama has a success formula on top of a multiplier - it's not legally justifiable. The success formula - in addition to the multiplier - simply does not pass constitutional muster as far as equal protection goes."

A lawsuit filed recently in the Southern District of Alabama could have national effects on the way private and public high school sports teams compete against each other in the future.

A few weeks ago, St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Mobile, Ala., filed suit seeking an injunction to stop a new rule that forces it to play in a larger conference. St. Paul’s Episcopal School v. Alabama High School Athletic Association, et al., No. CV-18-241 (S.D. Ala. Filed May 24, 2018).